The Art of Mopping
“You missed a spot!”…
“You’re doing it too quickly, be smoother, like a dance… focus Paul… focus!”…
“You’re moving too jerky, smoother”, he interrupted my thoughts.
The words hit me like a ton of bricks, having not heard anyone speak directly to me in so long.
…“I’m going quickly because i just want to finish this job and get the hell out of here”, I thought, but didn’t verbalize.
After 10 days without speaking I still wasn’t ready to talk much.
The room went silent again…
Swish. Swish. Plunge. Plunge.
Swish. Swish. Plunge. Plunge.
He peered over from across the room, and sensing my lack of commitment to the excercise, walked over and stopped me.
“Look”, he said. “The art of mopping is to be perfectly present with every stroke.”
He begins demonstrating:
“Pay attention to every detail on the floor.
Give it the attention it deserves.
Realize that you are giving it new life.
Notice every footprint that you wash away and appreciate the impermanence of it.
That someone stood here, or sat there, and had thoughts and contributed to the karma of this room.
As you mop: be grateful for what was; be fully present to what is; and realize that your small actions are giving new life to this floor for a NEW set of students, that will have thoughts and contribute to the karma next week.”
“I know its been a long 10 days and you’re, keen to get out of here”… he continued as if reading my thoughts… “but where will you really be going if you aren’t truly present.”
It was the final day of a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat, in which you stay at a centre in the woods for 10 days, no cell phone, no reading, no writing, and no talking (called noble silence). Our noble silence had naught ended 3 hours ago, and we were doing final clean up - yes, here you had to clean up after yourself - before we could go home. I had been assigned the duty of mopping the meditation room.
“So now”, he hands me back the mop, “continue as i have shown you and enjoy the art of mopping”.
I took my time, gave my care, and finished. After the 10 days I spent at that meditation centre, that was the most profound lesson I had ever learned… The universe’s secrets all unveiled with a mop.